CBS Boss Glen Geller to Step Down

CBS Entertainment president Glen Geller, who was supposed to return to work this week following medical leave for a heart attack, will not be coming back to the network, our sister site Variety reports.

Kelly Kahl, head of scheduling at CBS, has been promoted to president, CBS Entertainment, the network announced Tuesday afternoon. Thom Sherman, head of development at sister network The CW, will be senior executive vice president, programming.

Geller took over the Eye Network’s top spot after Nina Tassler exited the position in 2015. Per Variety, in a meeting last week, he asked CBS head honcho Les Moonves for a new role within the company.

“The company is in discussions with Mr. Geller for a production deal with CBS Television Studios,” the network said in a statement.

Geller’s heart attack happened in March; he took a leave of absence after the event but told staff in a memo that he planned to return to work in late May. He was noticeably absent from the network’s recent upfront presentation, with Kahl handling the introduction of the 2017 fall lineup during the event.

In recent years, Geller had been made to answer for the lack of diversity in his network’s primetime series, the leads of which tend to be white, male and straight.

“We’re very mindful at CBS abut the importance of diversity and inclusion. We need to do better and we know it,” Geller told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in 2016. “We are definitely less diverse this year than last year, and we need to do better.”